Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report containing an update on progress with reducing the Council’s sickness absence, which the Committee had confirmed should continue to be reported to future meetings.

The average full time equivalent (FTE) of days lost over the year from 1^st May 2013 to 30^th April 2014 was 8.4 days, a small improvement over the 8.9 days for same period in the previous year.  However, this amounted to an average monthly figure of 0.66 FTE days lost over each of the last 3 months, slightly above the average for the equivalent period in 2013.

A survey comparing Unitary, District/Borough and County Council sickness information reported an average of 10.22 days lost per employee in Unitary Authorities compared to 7.54 days in District/Borough Councils and 8.61 days in County Councils.  The Slough figure of 8.4 days compared favourably.  A Labour Market report (covering all sectors) showed the average days lost in 2013 was 4.4 days.  The Committee considered the reasons why levels of sickness in the public sector were higher than in the private sector.

The sickness absence balanced scorecard for the period to March 2014 showed an overall sickness management score of 68.1.  The Committee was reminded that this comprised performance on applying the policy (50%), course attendance (25%), and Occupational Health attendance (25%).  None of the Directorates had fallen below the score of 60 but two had scored between 60 and 65.  The 90% target of attendance at a training course for managers had not been achieved in all Directorates and there had also been a rise in the number of Occupational Health appointments not kept.

The Committee took the view that while performance on sickness management was still broadly going on the right direction, there were still a number of areas where further improvement needed to be made.  The performance of the Wellbeing Directorate was the weakest, but it had been recognised that due to the nature of the work of many of the staff, the sickness absence rate was likely to be higher than the other directorates.  As a result, the target for Wellbeing Directorate was being re-profiled but the Strategic Director had accepted a commitment to improve all round performance on sickness management.

From discussion and questions, the Committee noted that the requested breakdown of sickness by gender, which showed a far higher number of sickness days lost by women than men, broadly mirrored the composition of the workforce (where the female/male ratio was approximately 70/30).  Members supported the continuation of work to maintain the improvement in sickness management.  In connection with the potential effect of the working environment on sickness, it was suggested that at the next meeting in St Martin’s Place, it would be possible to review the new office layout and improvements being introduced, including such matters as the new desks and chairs, design of break-out areas, air conditioning refurbishment etc.

Resolved - 

(a)  That the report be noted.

(b)  That the Strategic Director of Wellbeing be advised that Committee will be looking for a real improvement in the sickness management statistics, with particular reference to referrals to Occupational Health, in line with the re-profiled targets for the Directorate.